Cal coach Sonny Dykes encouraged by spring football practices

BERKELEY -- Encouraged but hardly satisfied, Cal closed its spring workouts Saturday with an 86-play scrimmage in front of an announced crowd of 2,500 fans at Memorial Stadium.

Five months after completing an historically bad 1-11 season, the Bears are focused on the future, including an Aug. 30 season opener at Northwestern.

Sophomore-to-be quarterback Jared Goff said the team is ready to make a leap forward.

"We're done with everything that had to do with last year," he said. "We're a brand new team now and we're ready to go."

Coach Sonny Dykes has called the Bears a work in progress, and he continues to see good and bad.

"I thought we got better," Dykes said of his team's work over the past four weeks. "Our guys are still learning what it takes to win at this level. I'm not sure we completely understand that yet. I certainly like where we're headed, but we still have a long way to go."

The defense had the upper hand early Saturday, prompting defensive end Brennan Scarlett to pronounce, "We were dominating."

The offense was more effective in the second half, Dykes noted. Goff, who was just 5 for 11 for 27 yards in the first half, was 9 for 12 for 143 yards the rest of the way. He had an 8-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Lawler and a 37-yard completion to Bryce Treggs, who made a nice over-the-shoulder catch.

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Austin Hinder and Kyle Boehm will take their duel for the No. 2 quarterback job into fall camp.

Daniel Lasco ran six times for 35 yards and a touchdown, and Jeffrey Coprich also scored a TD.

Dykes gave Lasco high marks for his play all spring.

"We've got to hit it a little more downhill and be more physical," he said. "Lasco really did that this spring."

Even so, Lasco, who'll be a junior this fall, said no one on the team has any sense of complacency.

"This whole team has definitely made strides to turn this program around," he said.

The Bears appear to have come through spring practice without any significant injuries, though center Jordan Rigsbee apparently sprained his ankle Saturday.

Dykes called the defensive secondary the most improved position group on the team, singling out cornerbacks Trey Cheek and Darius Allensworth for their play in the scrimmage.

Harrison Wilfley and Macus Manley have earned the starting spots at defensive tackle for now. They were listed as starters on a depth chart the Bears released this week. College of San Mateo transfer Trevor Kelly and Tony Mekari were penciled in on the second team. None of the four has played in a Division I game. "That's going to be the big position that's up in the air for us," Dykes said.

The Bears still await the return of defensive lineman Mustafa Jalil, who missed all of last season and spring ball due to a knee injury that required offseason surgery. JC transfer David Davis will arrive in August and there is no update on the status of Jacobi Hunter, who has taken the past few weeks away from the team for personal reasons.

Competition for place-kicker will continue into fall camp. Noah Beito had the upper hand early in spring camp, but Matt Anderson made all three of his field goal attempts Saturday. James Langford made two of three.